The Guild: Expansion Time

The Guild season 3 is here! The show is as good as always, but the distribution is not so good.

Distribution Issues

The Guild is now distributed via the Xbox Live store and MSN Video site. They did this for season 2 also.

My problem with both means is that they do not offer the ability to subscribe to the series, so fans have to check back often to see if a new episode is out. I wish the process was easier. Hopefully, Microsoft is working on this problem.

Expansion Time

This is a great episode! It sets up a rivalry between our favorite Guild and a group of evil line cutters. Since I haven't seen a lot of publicity about it, and the surprise made me jump out of my chair shouting, "Yes!" So I will not spoil it for you. Let me just say, I cannot wait to see the rest of the season.

My name is Charlie, but if your looking for my work, I go by C. E. Dorsett. I write scifi, fantasy, and a touch of horror. I like to play with gothic, steampunk, decopunk, epic fantasy, and wuxia. I love to tell stories and talk about books, movies, series, and music.

The Guild Season 3 Auto-Tune Recap

I love the Guild and The Gregory Brothers who do Auto-Tune the news, you could guess my response to a video recap of season 3 Auto-tuned! Watch above.

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When it came time to do a recap of Season 3, we thought we’d do something new and different. Everyone at The Guild had become big fans of The Gregory Brothers, creators of Auto-Tune the News, and we got to meet them in person at this year’s Streamy Awards where they won three Streamys and rocked the audience with their live performance and Magical Streamys Remix Video (watch it, it’s awesome) So, we asked if they would lend their talents to our recap (embedded below).

The Gregory Brothers crack me up. I really enjoy their auto-tuned news and their time travel remix songs are very poignant.

The Guild is coming to DVD!

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I love this online series and now I can get season one and two on DVD. Season 2 DVD will have a lot of extras including commentary tracks, gag reels and extra bonus videos. My favorite feature will be a “Play All” option without credits… a marathon mode, sweet.

The Guild is a must own for any fan of RPG’s either table top or especially MMORPG. There are ton’s of geeky references as we get to follow both the online lives and IRL lives of the guild members. Best representation of an IRL boss battle Ever!

More Proof J. J. Abrams Doesn’t Get Star Trek

They launched the new Star Trek Movie site today, and it provided me with all the proof I need to see how little J. J. Abrams does not understand Star Trek at all.
As you can see on the right, the story is that an egotist and a bunch of people who have never done anything that could be described as good or great have come together to overlay their vision onto a classic series that they have mistaken as nothing but a space adventure.

I have talked at length about how little the new team seems to understand about the depth and power of the original series in their attempt to turn Star Trek into Star Wars (read it here). This very problem has plagued Trek since Gene Roddenberry died (read more on that here).

Gene Roddenberry on idea of Star Trek, it had action, adventure, wants and needs, but it also tackled all of the most important issues of the day.

This has always been what set Star Trek apart from all of the other Space Operas that have been on Television before or since with the sole exception of Babylon 5. Action/adventure shows are fleeting. No other show has engendered the devotion and admiration of so many people. It didn’t accomplished because it had an action episode from time to time. It did this because the shows stood for something.

Gene talking about how he resisted the studio's push for Star Trek to be nothing more than an Action Adventure series. It had to be about so much more.

It wasn’t easy for me to listen to Gene talking about Star Trek. I hope it will not be as bad as it could be, but so far, Abrams and the rest have given me no reason for hope. This feels like the forces that wanted Star Trek to be a vacant series, devoid of merit have taken advantage of Gene to slowly bleed out of the series everything Gene fought to keep in. This film, if it is what it looks like, would be the second film to betray Gene’s vision.

The Guild Season 2 Starts November 25

Let’s dance! Kim announced today that The Guild will return to a small screen near you on November 25th.
After the boss battle, I cannot wait to see where the show goes next. I can only imagine what will happen since Codex has finally stood up for herself.

If you don’t know what I am talking about, check out the videos here and the primer here. This has to be one of the best, if not the best show out there right now. I cannot wait for season 2.

Avatar - "The Day of the Black Sun"

It is hard for me to review this episode without spoiling the end, so, as always, I will err on the side of caution and not go into much detail about the episode.
"The Day of the Black Sun" is a two part episode where the long awaited eclipse finally darkens the land, stealing the fire benders ability to do their bending.

The episode starts with the gathering of the forces of the earth kingdom and water tribes, including all of the soldiers and characters that we have met over the past several years, with the exception of Jet, who was lost last season. Several of Jets freedom fighters are involved, carrying on Jet's vision.

Early on, as everyone sets up for the invasion, Aang shaves his head as the others don their amazingly well styles black with white trimmed uniforms. It was good to see Aang reclaim his air nomad heritage, and even more thrilling to see him fly again.

What sets Avatar apart from most fantasy stories, is that all of the technology used by the invaders is thoroughly integrated with each tribe's bending. It is rare to see any series that takes full advantage of this magical and fantasy elements. The water tribes' ships are powered by water benders. The earth kingdom's tanks are powered by earth bending.

While I was not surprised by the outcome of the battle, it still gave me cold chills. The futures of Iroh and Zuko are up in the air, everyone's plans are stretched to their limit. The biggest surprise was the revelation about what happened to Zuko's mother.

A great mid-season spectacular. I am itching for the next episode. What is going to happen at the western air temple... I have to know.